What is FEMININE? A corpus study of metaphors used by French speaking female influencers writing about sport

Conceptual metaphors underlying everyday language shape the way we think and act (Lakoff/Johnson 1980): with regard to gender diversity, previous studies showed how unconscious metaphors “enables stereotyping and the tacit dissemination of prejudice” (Melnick 1999) due to rudimentary dichotomic associations like FEMALE/SOFT/ PASSIVE/LABILE in opposition to MALE/HARD/ACTIVE/SOLID. As women’s roles in Western society change and the Internet facilitates dialogue, exchange and awareness, women’s online contributions reveal a significant constellation of metaphors related to women, thus representing a source of linguistic interest. This paper focuses on women writing specifically for women, more precisely on gender metaphors that underlie Internet posts written by three French speaking top female sport influencers (Sonia Tlev, Stessie Littlebirds and Lucile Woodward): the language these personalities choose and use on Facebook, Instagram and on their blogs is analyzed with regard to the metaphors systematically related to sporting women and the traits assigned to the concept of FEMALE/FEMININE.